The Portuguese Press Association and the Christian Inspired Press Association represent the majority of newspaper and magazine publishers, on paper or online, who will be affected by the application of the precept provided for in paragraph 4 of article 10 of Law 72-A /2015 regarding the suspension of certain forms of State Institutional Advertising during the pre-campaign and electoral campaign period - which in 2019 will be particularly long, and, therefore, greatly amplifies the irreparable damage to the sustainability of publishing companies newspapers and magazines in Portugal, whatever their size and scope of coverage.
We see this appeal,
to the President of the Assembly of the Republic,
to the Presidents of the 1st and 12th Parliamentary Committees of the Assembly of the Republic (Committee on Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, Committee on Culture, Communication, Youth and Sports, respectively), to the leaders of Parties with parliamentary seats and parliamentary groups,
the immediate and very urgent change of the legal precept in question, in order to allow the normal use of the institutional publicity instrument until the effective start of the electoral campaign for the elections to the European Parliament,
In recent days, opinions, explanations and justifications have been made public which exempt us from reaffirming in this document the powerful reasons that lead us to make this appeal (but which we are prepared and willing to communicate at the appropriate place in the Assembly of the Republic),
Thus, the following are the indispensable changes (and the only ones that we consider to combine the duties of impartiality and neutrality that are intended to ensure by the institutional advertising advertisers of the State with the equally constitutional obligations of the State to support media companies and not to harm, through administrative decisions, the normal functioning of these entities):
- temporal scope, determine that the ban is in effect for the duration of the campaign,
- functional scope, apply the prohibition to State agents directly involved in the objective of each electoral act,
- content scope, define the prohibitions of advertising messages by categories and not by exception, also distinguishing (and excluding) ads (which include urgent and unavoidable messages) and including very clear reference to the campaign signatures or identity of the advertising promoter Institutional.
The signatory Associations consider this the only way to avoid dramatic consequences for editors, journalists and citizens, which include competition in which digital media, not regulated or registered, will benefit from all this confusing and regrettable legal provision, continuing to enjoy, with impunity, of that advertising investment.
We also remember that Institutional Advertising is published information and that the limits placed on the contents of this information can contaminate informative communication, journalistic or not, thus irremediably expanding the impacts on the democratic system enshrined and defended by the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic.
Lisbon, March 13, 2019
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